Garden pees proponent backs practice

[bananas]

Some of you have been concerned about Peak Oil because fertilizer is made from oil.
Here is some good news.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4194151a4560.html

Garden pees proponent backs practice
By AMY MILNE - The Southland Times | Saturday, 8 September 2007

An Invercargill man who urinates on his veggie garden stands by his practice.

Nick Kiddey told The Southland Times this week that he urinates on his vegetable plants as it was an excellent fertiliser, which was sterile and contains no pathogens.

It was also a great way to conserve water instead of flushing the toilet which wastes up to 11 litres of clean water per flush, Mr Kiddey said.

However, a caller to The Southland Times disagreed with Mr Kiddey's comments about urine containing no pathogens and wanted to know what evidence there was to support it.

<snip>

[jhain]

1. If only there was an 'N" in his name....

The practice works wonders to keep deer and other critters away, also.

[iamahaingttta]

2. I pee in my garden all the time.

But mainly because I'm too lazy to go inside!

[madokie]

8. uuuuh wouldn't think of it but I have read for years it is a ok to do

the thought kind of turns me off though. I was tempted back in my 'herb' growing days so as to keep the dear and other critters away but I didn't for the same reason as I don't do it in the garden now. ;-)

[MuseRider]

3. If I had only known this

when my boys were little. I don't know why but little boys love nothing more than peeing outside and throwing rocks in the water. We could have saved a ton of water!

Edit for stupid morning error

[splat]

4. For acid-loving plants only

I remember a gardening story about a very proper lady with beautiful gardenias, who confided her "secret" to the author: Her husband went out the French doors every night and peed off the veranda into the gardenia bed.

[Kolesar]

5. Taste? It has a *wang* to it.

Urine is the prime source of the nutrient nitrogen in manure.

[DBoon]

6. I outsource this to my dogs

they are more accomplished at this, and as carnivores, their urine has more of the essential plant nutrients

[LiberalEsto]

7. Reminds me of the old kids' joke

"What did you eat for breakfast?"
"Pea green soup."
"What did you eat for lunch?
"Pea green soup."
"What did you eat for dinner?"
"Pea green soup."
"What did you do all night?"
"Pee green soup.!

:evilgrin:

[hunter]

9. Shouldn't we be saving our pee to make gunpowder?

If we don't have guns, how can we keep Osama bin Laden from stealing our vegetables?

"Saltpeter, the chemical that produces the oxygen for the other ingredients when lit off, can he made by putting urine and manure of any kind in a big cement tank mixed with water until you have about three hundred gallons mixed up. Then you put on a tight lid and let it sit for about ten months. You have to have a drain pipe and valve at the bottom, and a stainless steel filter screen installed beforehand or you'll have one big mess on your hands. At the end of that time, you run the liquid that drains off through ashes into shallow wooden trays lined with plastic sheeting and let them stand for evaporation in the sun. When the water evaporates, potassium nitrate crystals (saltpeter) will form in the bottom of the trays."

"In the old days in cities, most outhouses were fitted with trays or drawers under the seats that could be pulled out from behind the building. They had night-soil collectors who were paid so much every month by the outhouse owners to keep those drawers emptied, and they'd come around with a special wagon into which they dumped the contents. When the wagon was full, it was hauled out to where another fellow bought the contents and dumped it into concrete tanks where the bacteria works it just like yeast works wine or bread dough. Then the liquid was run through ashes into shallow tiled or plain concrete evaporating trays or basins to recover the saltpeter."

From The Foxfire Book, Volume 5 - © 1979 The Foxfire Fund; Published by Doubleday Books

All said, I'd rather have a composting toilet.

[GliderGuider]

10. There's a joke about "Greenpees" in there somewhere, I just know it!

[phantom power]

11. Wouldn't it be preferable to pee on your compost pile?

[Javaman]

12. I thought urine had to be fermented for about 28 days before it could

be used in a diluted form?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

13. Urease is ubiquitous in soils

:)

[XemaSab]

14. I'd think this would only work in a rainy climate

such as the UK, eastern US, Alaska, or the tropics.

If not properly flushed (so to speak) the nitrogen and other salts can create an osmotic gradient and deprive the plants of water. That's why the grass dies when the dog pees there. pH is another concern.

So basically, if you pee in the yard make sure to spread it out and at the first sign of plant stress, go elsewhere.

[kestrel91316]

15. Every other land-dwelling creature, if it pees, pees onto the ground.

I don't know what people think is so special about human pee that it has to go into drinking water first......

It's FERTILIZER. Even it if HAD bacteria in it from a urinary tract infection, it STILL wouldn't be hazardous (those bacteria come from the environment) unless you peed directly on garden produce and then immediately ate it wothout washing.

[depakid]

16. We could also wash our clothes the way the Romans did....

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/288088/urine_the_natural_way_to_clean_your.html